The Neville brothers have a rich musical history, Art Neville, the oldest,
played piano on the seminal Mardi Gra Mambo by the Hawketts in 1953
and later became one of the founding members of the influential proto jazz
funk bands The Meters. Charles Neville played Saxophone backing R&B
bands like Big Maybelle, Jimmy Reed, and Big Joe Turner, then moved into
a modern jazz style and occasionally backing Soul singers like Johnnie
Taylor, Clarence Carter and O.V. Wright when funds got tight. Another brother, Cyril,
is also an accomplished drummer. Aaron Neville recorded his early work
for the New Orleans independent label Minit, Over You / Every Day
was his first release. He issued seven different singles on Minit without
finding a great deal of success, he did find some successes, however, in
1966 with the single Tell It Like It Is, released on the small Parlo
label, but the fame was short-lived without much financial reward. Throughout
this time he was
still scraping a living to get by and provide for his family, as a freight handler,
longshoreman, ditch digger or steel mill worker; whatever it took to pay
the bills. So, nothing new there then.